Dirt and Blood
by MikeTB
Summary: A story set in the capital wasteland following an original character as he wonders the waste getting into fights way over his head. first time writing on this site might take a chapter or two to get used to it. Any feed back would be appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

The sun was getting low when I decided to check just one more house on the road for supplies. This house held more promise than any other on the block so far because it did not look quite as burned out as the rest. Once the bombs had dropped and leveled everything and killed all notion of society and technology a house with a looked door and only one broken window seemed like a dream come true. Still I knew enough to be cautious, walking around the house and checking the windows and seeing if I could spot anyone or anything inside. Deciding I wouldn't know for sure until I was actually inside I circled around the front and looked at the door shouldn't be too hard to force open.

"Alright baby time to give up the goods" I said as I drew my leg up and kicked the door near were the lock was breaking the door open in one hit. I rushed in with my rifle up sweeping it left and right looking for raiders that may try to kill me for my gear or a mole rat looking to take a chunk out of my leg. I let out a sigh of relive "All clear" I said to myself. I lowered my rifle letting it hang from the one point sling. A thing of beauty the rifle was, an M16 A4 with a RCO scope that made shooting pretty easy, not that I wasn't a decent shot without it. It fired single shot with the capability of three round burst if you felt like wasting ammo it could also kill someone from 500 yards out. Giving it an affectionate pat I walked through a hallway to the kitchen noticing the broken picture frames and the blacked photos on the ground. The kitchen was barren of anything of use, the food was decades past its expiration date but than it was hard to find food that was not. Somehow people of the waste had found out that certain foods wouldn't make you sick even past the date like fancy lands cakes and Salisbury steak. Also many of the prewar homes had food made to last through a nuclear disaster. Guess the people were paranoid and rightly so, for the all good it did them anyway. While there was not any edible food there was a bottle of clean rad free drinking water (well I assume it was clean). The water was too valuable to trade or sell which was my main reason for being here and scavenging the waste was not a livable job if you kept everything you found so I also pocket a couple of knives and pencils. After all someone was always looking to stab someone and the few people who knew how to write would always need some pencils, they would not fetch much but it was something at the least. The other rooms downstairs were all a complete bust nothing but empty cabinets and inches of dust. I made my way upstairs each step creaking in protest under my weight, weight which they haven't felt in many years. I entered the bathroom and found some toilet paper very useful for obvious reason and also very rare but the real jack pot was in the medicine cabinet. "Holy shit" I muttered as I opened it and saw an honest to god stimpak military grade medicine heal all kind of drug. It could and probably would end up saving my sorry life one day. The other stuff such as the minor pain killers were also expired but since it was medicine I knew that someone might be desperate to give me something for them so I put them in my bag as well.

Only one room left, a bed room at the back of the house on the second floor. I opened the door and my eyes were drawn to the bed were two skeletons lay, long past the point of where they would smell bad. They were locked together as if they had clung to each other in the final moments before oblivion descended upon them. I stood there staring at the pair wondering if they had been husband and wife or maybe brother and sister or even simply two friends that did not wish to die alone. I wonder what it would be like to have a wife and live in a house and my only real worries were if we wanted one kid or two instead of worrying about running out of water or dyeing a slow agonizing death from radiation poison. The quiet of the waste land was punctuated by a loud piercing scream of a woman. I jumped and my hands went instantly to my rifle and clicked it from safe to single shot. I ducked by a window and peeked my head out to see any hint of who had screamed and what had cause them to do so. I saw a woman running down the street with a look of terror on her face and hot on here kneels was a raider brandishing a very large and very stained combat knife. Many thoughts ran through my head first was sadly that I should leave her to her fate. If I shot the raider I would be down one bullet and draw a lot of attention after all a raider was never alone and I had no idea of where the rest were and how well armed they were. But I still considered myself an okay human and the blue suit and thing on the woman's arm marked her as someone who I very much wanted to talk too. After all it was not every day you got to confront someone that had betrayed and left you high and dry. I quickly got up and ran down the stairs and out the house in pursuit of the woman and her would be killer/rapist. The woman in blue did not get very far before she stumbled and feel hard to the ground. The raider laughed and pointed his knife at her and said "now now pretty young thing be a good little girl and don't scream or I'll have to cut out that tongue of yours." He stopped and pretended to think for a second "Well go ahead and scream I'll probably cut out your tongue anyway." His hands dropped to his pants as he went to undo his zipper but he would not get that far.

I come up behind him and leveled my sights on the center of his back, no point in aiming for the head smaller target might miss and waste a bullet. Even if the round did not kill him outright I felt confident I could handle one mortally wounded raider without trouble. I squeezed the trigger and round went through the raider and a mist of blood splattered across the woman's face who seemed too surprised to scream or simply had given up. I quickly took in her features. She had bright green eyes and blond hair that almost seemed to reflect the sunlight that fell to about the middle of her back. I guessed she was about five feet seven inches and of average weight. It was easy to tell she hadn't been in the waste land for long, her face was dirty but did not have perpetual dirty look of people who have been in the waste for too long.

"Come on lets go" I said to her quietly. Her eyes snapped to me and were as wide as dinner plates and her face was devoid of any color. She looked from me to the dead raider muttering incoherently. "I am not like him" I said as calmly as I could "I am not going to hurt you I want to help you." But her eyes continued to dart between me and the raider. I looked back at the raider and saw him twitching slightly. "Oh right I'll take care of him" I told her figuring that was what she was trying to tell me. I walked up to him and smashed the butt of my rifle onto the back of his head. One hit probably would have done it but just too be sure I hit him twice more on the final hit his head split open spilling blood and brain onto the ground. The woman looked at me with terror on her face and started to talk "you….. you" she never got to finish what I was because she passed out.

"Well shit you are not making this easy for me uh lady" I said and went over to check on her. She had no visible wounds besides minor cuts and bruises. However she was not sweating and had no water on her she must be severally dehydrated. I picked her up in a fire man's carry, had to get her back to megaton and get an IV and fluid in her. I got about ten feet when I heard people running up behind me. I spun around and fire a couple rounds from the hip at two approaching raiders. The rounds were not accurate enough to hit them but they did duck behind cover.

Fuck I thought I can't out run them not with the added weight of a person but for the brief seconds I saw them I saw no guns just a pipe and knife. I turned the corner down the street and went into the first house I could see to buy myself some time. I went over my options in my head, I could leave the body here and try to kill the raiders without any burden or I could use the body as bait. I couldn't just try and wait them out, for one, they would probably find them and two I wanted to get the woman to medical attention as quick as possible. I set the lady on the couch and looked out the window when I heard the sound of breaking class in the back room. Instead of running into the room I wanted outside the room rifle leveled waiting for the raider emerged. The slowly creaked open and I fired a shot and the raiders head exploded and he died instantly.

Before I could celebrate my victory the other raider had cleverly waited for me to be distracted and snuck up behind me and smashed a vase on the back of my head. I feel to the ground and rolled to my back so I could see the raider and too buy myself half an extra second of life. The raider lunged down at me with a small knife I instinctively put my hand up to block my face and the knife stabbed through it and I gave a shout of pain. I kicked the raider in the groin and he recoiled a little bit. I yanked the knife out and tried to bring the rifle to bare but the raider recover and was on top of me again. He grabbed my neck and proceeded to squeeze the life outta of me. One hand was trapped under the raider's weight so I used the other one and repeatedly punch every inch of the raider I could reach but I might as well have been flicking him. My vision started to blur as my finger searched the floor for the knife that I had recently removed from the hand and found it. I shanked it into the side of the raider but he did not let up just yelled as I continued to stab him half a dozen times before his grip relaxed and he slide off dead.

I rolled to the side sucking in air and clutching my bleeding hand, I was temporally numb to everything, the woman forgotten, where I was forgotten all I cared about was that I could breath and wasn't dead. I composed myself and wrapped my and with the dead raiders shirt and took everything of worth which wasn't much. I went back to unconscious woman on the bed only now she was awake. "Couldn't have woken up ten minutes earlier huh and given me a hand" I said a little bitterly.

"Help please" She screamed at the top of her lungs

"Hey hey shut it am not the bad guy here am not going to hurt you" I said trying to sooth her but to no avail she continued to scream. I leaped at here and covered her mouth "shhhh more of them will hear us" She sank her teeth into my hand I let go and hit her hard with my other hand, the one with hole in it. She collapse again and I started swearing and clutching my hand all over again.

The woman was once again out cold and I pondered if it was worth all this to save her but I knew I couldn't live with myself if I left her even after what her people did to me. I tied her hands with her shoe laces and picked her up and made the track back to my home in Megaton. The sun was almost down and I didn't want to be out in the open at night but I didn't have much of a chose. Damn I just want to sleep I thought as I left the house carrying the increasingly heavy woman.


	2. Chapter 2

Waste land chapter two

What felt like hours later I finally reached the gates of megaton, all my muscles screaming in protest with every step. I looked up at the ever vigilant stolkom and he opened the gate for me not seeming to care that I was carrying an unconscious woman over my shoulders. Even if he cared I am not sure he would have come down to investigate, in the six months I lived in megaton I have only seen him off his perch twice. The man ate, sleep, pissed and shit up there. He only every came down to visit Nova, a local redheaded prostitute who worked in bar for a sleazy man named moriarty, she was very popular with the towns men. . I made my way down to doc Churches place, the guy was kind of an ass but he had a soft spot for me because I helped him in his clinic from time to time. Hopefully I was enough in his good books that he would help me. I banged on his door "hey doc open up" I shouted.

"Who in the hell is calling me this late at night you better me missing a damn arm" He open the door and say me "Oh it's you" he said flatly.

"Hello to you to doc, are you going to help me out or what" I replied.

"Do you know what time it is" Doc church said

"I get it, I interrupted your beauty sleep but raiders do not particularly care what time of day it is when they try and kill you." I said exasperated, I knew he was going to let me in and he was just on power trip. "Come on let me in I am bleeding and this girl is not getting any lighter."

Doc Church opened the door and step back "alright come on in set the girl on the couch."

The doctor's clinic was simply little building with only three rooms and medical equipment lad out everywhere. He had the tools and know how to fix broken bones heal radiation poison and patch up people after a gun fight. "She is severely dehydrated can you get an IV and some fluids in her?" I asked as Doc Church starting looking over her, checking her pulse and her forehead for her temperature.

"I can, but what are you going to give me in return." He said

"Well I got some knifes, very sharp" I said. He just grunted so I took that as a no. "Alright what about some pain meds?"

"Oh no you are not going to fool me with expired medicine, sell that garbage elsewhere" He said

"Fine" I said "how about this" and I pulled out the only thing I had of worth, the stimpak.

"Now you are talking my language son give it here" he said. I reluctantly handed it over and the Doc set to work setting up the IV.

"I am also going to take some needle and thread for the whole in my hand" I said

"That's fine you know where they are now stop bothering me I am working here" he said

Damn right its fine I thought. A Stimpak for an IV bag and stitches, highway robbery but then, I never was that great at bartering. I wondered to the next room to leave doc alone to his work and opened a draw to a cabinet to pull out a tiny needle and thread. Once I threaded the needle I undid the bandage on my hand to look at the damage. It didn't look to bad but it was bleeding badly and I did not have that good of dexterity with the hand. I took a bottle of alcohol and purred some of it on my hand and the needle to try and sterilize everything, after all risk of infection was always high out in the waste. I took in a deep breath, here comes the sucky part, and poked the needle through the skin and began to stich up my hand. I flipped my hand over and got to work on the other side of my hand, god why did this hurt more when you do it yourself.

By the time I had finished with my hand the doctor had finished looking over the woman and came in to the room I was sitting in. He took my cut hand and examined it checking both sides before grunting his approval. "Some good handy work you got there. Almost as good as mine." He said earnestly.

"Thanks doc, How is she is?" I asked nodding to the room were the woman lay asleep.

"She is fine, like you said just some dehydration and maybe a little shock to, she will be ready to move out tomorrow. She come from the same vault as you and that other guy? Do you know her?" He asked

Doc church was not one for small talk so I guess he was actually curious "Yeah she came from the same vault but I do not know her, seems vaguely familiar that's it" I answered. I was too tired to say anything else even if I wanted to.

The doc stood up and said "you need to get some rest you can crash her till she wakes than I am kicking you both out."

"Thanks doc you always had a soft spot for me" I said sleepily.

"What can I say, I Like a patient that can take care of themselves." He said pointing to my hand. "I get paid for nothing and I get to work on people I actually like." He laughed and went into his back room and closed the door. I was so tired that I feel asleep in the chair.

I awoke with a start as the door to the shack flew open. I jumped to my feet but relaxed slightly as I saw who the intruder was, it was the town sheriff of shorts, a tall middle aged black man. He was a fair man that cared about the town and was good with the rifle he carried. He was with a man who I did not recognize and between them was another man who was so badly mutilated I wouldn't have recognized him even if I did. The doctor came charging out of his room looking to kill the people who had awaken him instead of healing.

"You got patients" I said quickly. Doctor church say the bloody pile that passed for a human and looked at me and pointed to the girl and said "get her out of here I am going to need all the room I can get for this one."

I ran to woman and removed the IV and scooped her up in my arms and made my way out the door. On the way out the door I got some of the conversation between the three men.

"The bunker was there" said the man I did not know "but there were ghouls everywhere could not get past them."

"Damn, we really needed those supplies I am not sure how much my stores will last even with the trade caravans." Said Doc Church.

"Just relax Doctor one problem at a time" Said Lucas Simms.

He voice really does have a calming soothing tone to it I thought as the door of hut closed and drowned out the noise. It was still dark outside and I hurried to my house. I owned a small little house in megaton, it was the second floor of a building and it was only two rooms but it was enough and it was home. A person could not survive out in waste fully exposed for long without going crazy. Everything out there was looking to kill you from the people to the irradiated animals, sometimes easily ten times their normal size. If you were able to survive all that then there was the actual wasteland itself. In the day it was blistering hot and at night it was freezing cold, clean food and water were hard to find. Inside walls of megaton was shelter and clean water and people decent enough to not cut your throat for your supplies or just for shits and giggles. I had heard people talk of other towns just as rivet city but I had not seen anything as good as megaton so far.

I climbed up the stairs to my apartment and entered. "Home sweet home" I muttered. It was a modest home at best. The main room had a fridge that only worked if I had a fission battery which I did, and luckily I had a couple and they lasted a very long time. Also in the room was a couple a set of lockers and a dresser were I kept most of the things I own. I moved through the room to the bedroom which had as you can cause a bed and just a nightstand. I set the woman on the bed and went back into the other, a living room of sorts, and walked to over to the dresser and flicked on the lamp which was the only source of light. I had a wash basin and mirror on the dresser and I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

I had blue eyes that looked very tired and my hair which was usually blond curly was flattened due to the dirt and grease, hey it was not easy to find a shower and clean your hair. I had a little beard growing in due to the fact that had not bothered to shave in months. My face was also covered in dirt and blood. No wondered the lady screamed when she saw me, I looked like a murdering psycho path. I splashed some water my face and washed off some of dried blood and crusted on dirt. I pulled out my knife and started to shave my face when I heard movement in the other room and looked to see the woman standing there looking at me. She did not look scared to see me and color had returned to her face.

"Hey" she said looking at me, she was picking at her hands not sure what to do with them. Her voice was soft and had a slightly raspy quality to it.

"Hey" I said. I had questions I wanted to ask her and I am sure she did too but everything felt a little awkward "how umm how are you feeling" I asked

"I'm fine, thank you for your help I'm not sure what would have happened if you had not shown up" she seemed to shutter a little bit thinking about it.

Yeah no problem. So what's your name? Where you from?" I Asked and looking back at the mirror to shave my face. I felt it better not to tell her they would have rapped her and killed her, if she was lucky. If she was unlucky they would have raped her and kept her around as a toy to torture and rape at their leisure until they got bored or she simply died from it all.

"Madison Miller, some people like to call me M&amp;M for sort" she said. I stopped to look at her and raised an eyebrow. "I know stupid right and I'm from a vault an underground bunker of sorts. What about you?"

"My name is Robert Clay" I said ignoring were I had come from and said instead I asked "why did you leave the bunker? Seems like a perfect place to live."

"Oh" she gave a long pause thinking of what to say next. She did not trust me, or at least not enough to give away too much details of her home. She was smart and would be hard to get information from. "The overseer asked me and three others too scout out the surroundings." Her eye's got wide. "The others, they got caught by those people." She said slightly panicking "Please help me."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Please" she repeated "you have to help me"

I stopped shaving and to look at her, she was on the verge of tears but she looked determine to find them. "I don't have to do shit" I told her.

"They are good honest people sent out to by the overseer to help protect me, they don't deserve to die" Madison said. She had a guilty look on her face like it was her fault they had been caught by the raiders. It may have been but ultimately it was the overseer to blame, why would he risk the lives of his people, something was up. I had the leverage I needed for some real answers.

"Why did the overseer even want you to scout the area?" I asked

"We don't have time for this they could be being tortured right now." She paused thinking. "If I tell you will you help?"

"Maybe" I said, trying not to sound like I cared that much.

"Fine, he was hoping we could find a place that had more water chips or at least a G.E.C.K, now lets go" she made for the door but I did not follow. She turned and looked at me and said "You said...

"I said maybe." Cutting her off mid-sentence. "They are dead already, no point wasting my life for theirs and you shouldn't either."

"I need your help." She looked at a lost for what to do, then she took off a bag she was wearing a upturned it and dumped its entire contents on the floor. "Go ahead take whatever you want but help me find them." I picked through the pile looking for anything particularly useful. There was a map of D.C and a compass, both of which could be found on my pipboy as well as hers but it couldn't hurt to have a backup. She also had a Leatherman but so did I and some bandages which would be useful but not all that rare. Then I found the Diamond hiding among the coal, Iodine pills. Those could purify water and reduce its ration levels as well. I picked up the bottle and before I could say I wanted them she said "Half" and then she snatched them from my grasp and said "only after we found them."

I smiled at that, she knew they were valuable and to not let me have them before the job was done she learned fast. "You know I could just shoot you take all of them" I said making a gun with my hand and miming pulling the trigger.

Her reply was to give a one fingered hand gesture of her own and say, "You would not have gone through the trouble of trying to save me just to shoot me now." She turned and walked out the door.

I hurried to follow her and we set out together. It was still dark outside but for how much longer?

"Hey does that thing on your arm tell time" I asked pretending I did not know what it was and that I had one. I wore a baggy jacket that helped hide it.

"Oh yeah it's a pipboy, does a lot of useful things like monitoring my vitals and inventory. We get them in the vault when are old enough and they are tied to our DNA so no one else can us them." She said

That was total bullshit anybody can use them but she did not know I knew that. She was making sure I wouldn't kill her for it clever, but why did she still trust me so little I did save her like she said but I did hit her I wondered if she remembered that. I decided to play stupid and said "I do not know or care what 'DNA' is just tell me the time."

Madison looked at her pipboy "It is four am."

"Damn not a lot of night left lets hurry." I said quickening my pace

"Isn't it a good thing it might be light soon. No monster hunting or lurking in the shadows." She asked

"The big ugly monsters do not seem to care what time it is when they are try and eat you. For the most part they are just as active at night and day except for maybe a deathclaw." I said

"Deathclaw, what is that some kind of Mutate badger or something?" she asked.

"I don't know what it is never seen one, personally I think it is just a fairy tale. People get bored in the wastes, tell stories and sometimes details get exaggerated for flare. No I like the dark because it will make it harder for the raiders to see us just watch your step don't need a twisted ankle or broken bone those are just as bad as gunshot wound out here" I said "Moon light and stairs only illuminate so much."

"Isn't it a two why street? Can't they sneak up on us?" she asked

"True but raiders are not exactly too worried about people looking for them, most people are not that stupid to look for trouble. So hopefully most of them will be asleep and any that are awake are to stoned or drunk or simply do not care enough to keep watch."

We reached the gate of megaton I nodded to stolkom who opened the gate, did that guy ever sleep? Out into the Waste again, nothing good ever comes of this. "There is an old grocery store of shorts not too far from here that the raiders like to hang out that is probably our best bet. That or an old school building, but if they are not there than there is not any real way to find them." I told Madison.

"What is the game plan once we find them? Can you take on that many raiders? You already killed three by yourself." She said hopefully.

"I just got lucky they had no weapons and I got the drop on two of them. Simply shooting it out is not going to be an option. I have got an idea but I do not think you are going to like it much, hell I do not like it much."

"Can't be any worse than no plan right let's hear it" she said.

"Well I'm thinking that if I shoot at them from a pretty good distance some will come after me giving you a chance to find your friends. I'll try and lose them and met you back at megaton." I said shrugging. I did not tell her that her friends were already dead and if they weren't the only thing we could realistically do is put them out their misery. Even if they were fine I would consider shooting them just so I can say they are dead not have to risk my life trying to free them for some Iodine pills.

"Your right I do not like it much but I can't think of much better." Madison said.

"Should have tried to get you a gun" I said. I stopped and pulled out a knife from the sheath on my waist. It was a good knife, the blade was six inches sharp and serrated I handed it to her hilt first.

She looked at it uneasily and said "I have never killed anyone before"

I pointed to the sharp edge and said "That is the sharp end you stick that into them." I was going to leave it there but decided to say "With raiders it's kill first and fuck asking questions. Kill them or run do not just sit there or try to reason them, fight or flight. You can be worried about killing but odds are you will out of instinct which is good. Feel bad about later, feeling means you are still alive."

"Yeah I got it" she said with a determined look on her face. "We should keep it quiet, sounds travels far out here, learned that the hard way." She said bitterly

I nodded and kept my mouth shut. The darkness and silence of the waste surrounded us from then on. Nothing, nothing for as far as the eye could see, sure you would occasionally find out a burned out building or car, a dead drying tree here but that was it. The silence of the waste was disturbed only by our rustling as me moved through the desert. No animals made any noises, any which howled too much ended up in the stomach of other animals. Survival of the fittest was what the capital wastes was all about. The strongest fastest and smartest survived or the very brutal, luck would only get you so far eventual it would run out and you'd find yourself run through by a machete .

Despite the harshness of the waste I had managed to survive six months in land totally foreign to me. Growing up in a vault afforded me many advantages that people growing up in the waist did not have. The first of which was three square meals a day and a gym. Even after six months of a substantially smaller diet with less nutritional value I still outweighed most people I've met and anybody bigger than me I was not dumb enough to fight. The second advantage was the piece of metal I was trying to hide on arm. The pipboy had a plethora of features that helped keep me alive especially its ability to interact with prewar technology. Many of the best areas of loot were locked because no one who knew how to open them were alive and there was not enough fire power to blow the door open. That's how I found my M16, it was behind a locked door in a building that people simply could not get through and a good gun was the most valuable thing a person in the waste could have. This shit hole of land would not kill me nor would the asshole inhabitants without a good fight. I knew one day I would be to slow or outmatched and loss but I don't think it will be any time soon but that could all be from the arrogance of only being twenty

I looked at Madison and wondered how long she would make it out here. She was tougher than she looked that was for sure, I was setting a good pace and she was keeping up without complaint despite passing out only hours ago. Also seemed pretty clever but still far too idealistic but I'd bet once she finds her friends dead she will scurry back into the vault, back into the safe hole in the ground. Still I admired her drive to find her friends, whether it was because she cared about them or simply felt responsible it was not a common trait to find in the wastes.

My thoughts were broken when I noticed we were nearing the store maybe two hundred yards away or so "Alright lets hold up her for a second and check it out, see what we are dealing with." I told Madison and I dropped down into the prone position and she dropped down next to me. I looked through the scope on the rifle, there was only one raider outside the building holding a hunting rifle that probably meant that the rest were inside which could either be problematic for us or a blessing. I panned left and right looking for anything but saw nothing but dead and desecrated bodies, raiders did not bury their victims in fact they liked to display them. Two of the victims on display seemed fresher than the others, and they were wearing blue jumpsuits. Well my job just got much easier and I let out a sigh of relief. The raiders had stabbed a large spike through each of their chest propping them up like some kind of macabre scarecrow. There pants were removed, apparently these raiders were not that picky and did not care where they put it, male or female. Every inch of exposed skin was either burned or cut and some had been completely flayed away exposing the muscle underneath the skin.

"Well what do you see" Madison said sounding both impatient and scared of what I might say. Instead of telling her I just handed her the rifle so she could see for yourself. She looked through the scope for a couple of seconds before she admitted "I can't see anything but one raider this should be easy right"

"Look all the way to the left of the building and then slowly pan right slowly you will know when you see it." I told her.

"I still don't see anyth…. Oh god no no no please it can't be. It's too far away to be sure and they are too mangled to be sure if it is them I have to get a close look." Madison said. I could tell she did not believe it and was grasping at any hope to delay the fact that she would have to come to grip with the horrible death her friends suffered.

"They are wearing blue jumpsuits no one wears those except people from the vaults." I told her

"They could be from other vaults or or or something" she said

"Its them, there is only one other person from a vault running around out here and from what I hear it would take an act of god to kill that guy. We are done here lets go." I said

"Go? What do you mean go we have to get them down we have to bury them." She went to stand up and I put a hand on her back and held her down.

"We can't it is too risky, we would have to kill that raider silently so he can't raise the alarm and then there is always the chance that anyone inside the building comes out and spots us and we are dead. We are outnumbered here." I told her

"They were good people they deserve better than to be displayed like that, they deserve a proper burial." She said determined to do something

"They are gone, dead, do not waste your life on something that no longer matters, you can't save a dead person it is not worth it. If you want to throw your life away for something noble, fine that's your business but make it count. Let this go" I looked her in the eyes and said "Let it go."

"I can't it's my fault they are dead." She said tears rolling down her face. She pushed my hand holding her down off and went to stand up again. She was going to get both of us killed but I was not about to allow that to happen. I grabbed her ankle and yanked her down as hard as I could. She gave a yelp of surprise as she came crashing back down to the earth. I covered her mouth quickly and she looked at me with eyes wide with terror. I grabbed the rifle back and looked back at the lone raider praying he had not heard. I saw him looking in our direction however than he opened the door to store and yelled something I could not make out.

"Shit" I swore. "We have to move now, back to megaton as quick as we can and prey they do not catch up. If they do I swear ill shot you myself."

She looked a little surprised by the statement but without a word she ran off in the direction of megaton and I followed hot on her heels.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

Running again. It felt like I had done nothing but run in the past twenty four hours. Actually scratch that, I have done nothing but run since getting kicked out of the vault. Whither it was from rival scavengers who wanted my gear or a raider who wanted my gear. There was not much of difference of between the two a lot of the times besides clothing and the fact that raiders were usually tweaked out of there head on chem. We had to get to megaton that was only way to stop the raiders. Say what you want to about raiders they are determined, they will follow their prey to ends of the waste if they have to and many will fight to the bitter end despite certain death. But they wouldn't try to fight their way through megaton, hopped up on enough psycho they might try it but they were not usually that stupid luckily.

I glanced a look behind me and to my terror saw the raiders a half a dozen at least closing the distance armed with pistols, shotguns, and other less effective but still brutal weapons such as bats and sharp piece of metal. The sight made me push myself to run faster but my muscles ached and I was drenched in sweat. What is wrong with me? I am faster than this aren't I? I felt like I was running in three feet of water and my rifle felt like it weighed as much as a mini gun. I noticed Madison slowly pulling ahead of me as I started to slow down with every passing second. She passed around a larger hill surrounded by rocks and disappeared out of sight. Well at least she would probably get away while these raiders killed me I thought glumly. Seconds later though she came running back around the corner looking if possible even more terrified than before.

What came up behind her made me understand her new found level of fear. A black bear or what used to probably be a black bear, locals often referred to them as Yao guai. It had a similar appearance of a bear except radiation made even larger and more horrific looking. Much of its fur had fallen off of it exposing its skin and mass of muscles under it the tuffs of fur that remained looked greasy and stuck together almost looking like spikes. It had laws as long and sharp as any dagger and teeth just as sharp both equally capable of ripping its prey to shreds in seconds or it could simply pull a person in half if it so chose to. The sheer size of this thing was astounding easily weighing 700 pounds and probably stood at least seven and a half feet tall on its hind legs. Despite its size though it could run at incredible speeds and the lead Madison had was quickly evaporating.

A fully grown Yao Guai in front of them and a band of raiders closing in behind them, certain and horrible death. I stopped in my tracks losing all hope, we were truly fucked I thought. I tried to aim my rifle at the mutated bear anyway, not going to die without trying but the rifle was to heavy and the bear moving too fast for me to keep it in my sights. Death seemed certain might just be easier and quicker to shoot myself I felt like I was stuck in a rock and a hard place. The rocks I thought suddenly maybe there was some cover or a cave in the hills hidden by one. I noticed a hole big enough to fit a person maybe there was a cave maybe not I started to run for it no other option really besides death.

"Madison!" I shouted as loud as I could waving my left arm to get her attention. She looked and I pointed at the hole in the rocks, she did not say anything back just changed direction and ran for the opening. She would get there before the Yao guai but I'm not sure I would, it would be damn close. She reached it and quickly crawled through disappearing completely from sight. Thank god it was big enough to fit people at least. I willed my legs to move faster and they complied this time. The hole became bigger and bigger but the bear was getting closer and closer. I was a couple feet away from the hole and dove for it the bear roared in rage and it was close enough to smell, a rancid horrible smell that would haunt my dreams for years. I made it about half way through the hole when Madison grabbed me by my jacket and pulled with a force I did not think her arms had and yanked me rest of the way through.

The mutated bear was seconds behind me and smashed into the rock shaking the giant boulder. "Oh god It's not going to hold" Madison said It smashed into again and again but it held in place. A massive clawed hand reached in through the opening and grabbed me by the leg and pulled me down. I came crashing down onto the ground hard. Madison rushed forward and grabbed me as I tried to hold onto the boulder but the bear was going to win. I looked her in the eyes and saw a determination I did not feel she took out her knife and stabbed down with all her force into the paw trying to drag me into an early and painful grave. The bear gave out yelp of pain and let go. Together Madison and I backed up as far as we could which did not feel far enough. The Cave, if you could call it a cave, was dark and barely large enough to stand in and the two of us filled up most of the space.

Gun shots rang out as the raiders finally caught up and started to fire at the mutated beast. "Maybe they will kill each other" Madison said sounding hopeful.

"Yeah maybe there were a lot of raiders, if they have enough bullets even that monster won't kill them all. If they don't have enough bullets even better." I said in between breaths.

"Right they all die and it is to hurt and will die of its wounds." Madison said.

"Or at least not want to bother with us as a snack." I said in a weak voice, still breathing heavily and still sweating profusely. It should not feel this hot, we were in the shad and it was still relatively early in the day but it still felt like a hundred degrees.

Madison must have noticed the weakness in my voice because she looked up and asked "Are you okay, you do not look so good, you look pretty pale." She raised a hand and touched my forehead. "You're burning up take your jacket off and drink some water at least." The bear roared off in the distance and the gun shots stopped.

"Sounds like the bear won, score one for nature" I said taking off my jacket, it was a simple duster with lots of pockets, some of which I had sewed on to add more room for things. My under shirt was completely drenched in sweat and clung to my body. In the back off my mind during the running and panic I think I knew what was wrong I just did not want to admit it. I looked at the bandage on my hand and noticed some blood dripping down it.

"You don't think it's infected do you" She asked as we both looked at it. I undid the bandage and even just doing that I winced as my hand stung. It was not a pretty sight. It had swollen and stretched the stitches I had put in and a mixture of blood and puss seeped from the wound. In addition to this a fairly unpleasant smell come from the wound.

"Damn that was quick maybe that guy pissed or shit on his knife or something." I went to open the pack that I had dropped but my fingers fumbled with the zippers.

Madison jumped forward and said "Here let me handle it, what are you looking for?"

"I should have fresh bandage in there somewhere or at least a rag or something. And grab the water from the side pocket. Drink some for your self first then hand it to me. I doubt it is contagious but no point in taking chances" After all if she got sick I would have to waste resources on trying to cure two people and if she died I would have no answers of what the hell is going on in that vault.

She did as I asked pulling out a bandage and handing it to me, and as I replaced the foul bandage with the new one she took a swig of water from the canteen. She handed me the canteen and pointed to my hand and said "Do you think it is tetanus after all you were stabbed with a metal blade and out here what are the odds it was not covered in rust."

"You know funnily enough when I was fighting for life and yours I did not try and decide if the knife had rust on it or not" I said sneering at her "But no I do not think it is Tetanus if it was I think I would have some muscle spasms by now." I said quickly trying to gloss over my previous statement that made me look like an asshole. "And if it is you might as well put a bullet in my head."

"Can you move, I do not think it is wise to stick around here. The raiders might have friends or someone might come by to investigate all the noise." Madison said.

"I think so just give me a couple of seconds to catch my breath," I told her. I handed her the rifle. "And if you mind holding that it would help, besides I can't hit shit now anyway. The straps go around your body helps support it while you shoot." Despite the short reprieve from death and running I was not getting any better. In fact things seemed to be getting fuzzier. My legs started to get weak and I felt dizzy, off balance. I reached a hand out to steady myself as Madison also placed a hand on my shoulder to help steady me.

"Hey hey stay with me Clay I cannot drag you back by myself." But her words fell on deaf ears as all light started to fade. I fell forward onto Madison as I passed out and my last sight was of her chest as I fell onto her. Not a bad last sight before my death I thought dully as all the light faded and everything went dark.

When I awoke I was looking a familiar ceiling and a laying on a familiar bed. Sure enough when I sat up I was in my little shack. How the hell did I get all the way back here? I stood up and wobbled a little bit on my legs. I felt a little better than before but still had a fever. I walked into the main room of my house and noticed the lack of Madison. "Where did you run off too?" I asked out loud to myself. I did not have to wait long because right after I said it she walked through the door. She had a bottle of clear liquid in her hand with the label alcohol on it.

"You know if you keep talking to yourself people are going to think you have lost your mind." She stopped to think for a second then said. "Well I guess everyone out here has already lost their minds, How are you feeling?" Madison asked closing the door.

"A little better I guess, thought I was dead how did you get me back here?" I asked gesturing to my little shack.

"I'll tell you while we take care of that hand." She said waving the bottle of alcohol. "The doctor here says to cut out some of dead flesh and drain it as best as possible then pure some kind disinfected on it and this moonshine from the bar here was the best I could find."

"So this isn't for drinking than" I said taking the bottle of moonshine from her.

"No" she said shaking her head. "But you might want to take a swig because it's going to hurt."

"Good idea" I said and took a sip. The alcohol burned as went down my throat and left a warm feeling in my stomach. "So can you tell me how we got back here?"

"Well after you passed out there was a couple more gunshots. I thought it was more raiders but when I crawled out to see these people were much friendlier. They were a group of traders, said they heard all the gunshots and came to investigate, said there is usually good loot after a gunfight." Madison told me. As she talked I walked over to my wash bowl and undid my bandage and examined my wound. It did not look any better unfortunately and someone had removed my stitches. I began to squeeze around the wound and blood and puss began to flow out and drop into the bowl. Just doing that hurt like hell. "They agreed to help and together we make a stretcher for you which they attached to some weird two headed cow looking thing. The guy in charge said he was heading to megaton anyway or he would not have offered." Madison said as she looked at my hand with a mixture of curiosity and disgust.

Once I was satisfied I had gotten a decent amount of puss out poured some alcohol on the wound. I inhaled sharply as it felt like my hand was on fire. I pulled out a sharp little knife and a zippo lighter and tried to light it but nothing happened, must be out of fluid. I tossed it on the floor angrily cursing. "They seemed pretty nice." She said and she tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a pack of matches. "Once I got you here one of the guards offered to help me carry you to the Doctors place." I lit a match and held to the knife to kill the germs on it, or at least some of them. "The doctor said he would help take out the stitches and clean the wound a little. He even gave you some kind of shot that he said would help your body fight the infection."

"That was awfully generous of him" I said. I took the knife and started to pick at the infected and dead parts of flesh. The alcohol had felt like a bee sting compared to this.

"He said you owed him big time, and that he would make sure to collect the debt owed." Madison said.

"Yeah that sounds more like the doc I know." I put down the knife and poured a little more of the moonshine on it to help wash away more blood and puss and to sterilize the wound. "How did you get the merchants to agree to help you? I did not notice any of my stuff missing."

"They said if I let them have all the loot they would help." She said but here voice sounded a little weird. I looked at her and sure enough she was looking at the floor with an embarrassed look on her face.

"That's not all is it" I asked.

She shook her head and said "No I uh might have lead them to believe that if they helped id be really grateful and uh do something for them" her face turned a dark shade of red.

I smiled "Aw a very useful trick for women sadly does not usually work so well for men. Bet they were disappointed when you did not give up the goods so to speak" I took out the needle and thread that I had taken from the doctors house half a day ago and began to sew the wound up again and wrap in another fresh bandage. I was exhausted from the standing and working. I put my back to wall and slowly sled down the wall to sit on the floor.

I looked up at Madison and she looked back at me. I could see why the merchants had helped her, she had a pretty face maybe the nose was a little big and a nice body, especially compared to other waste landers. She sighed and also went to sit on the floor. It could not have been more than sixteen hours since we meet but it felt like days. "Maybe I should get a couple chairs for this place really liven it up." I said trying to break the silence. She did not say anything. "Thank you for helping me and not robbing me blind while I was passed out."

"Yeah no problem, figured if you died I was good as dead too without any friends out here to help me." She said and continued to look at the floor.

So that's why she was silent. I had temporally forgotten in all the excitement why we had left megaton in the first place. It could not have been easy for her to see her friends torn to pieces like that and displayed as some sick joke. I could not really blame her for wanting to get their bodies and bury them. She had grown up with them for years, anybody else probably would have tried the same thing, or at least I hope they would have. All humanity was not lost out here yet. "I am sorry about your friends, sorry we could not get to them in time" I told her.

She looked at me for a couple of seconds a single tear slowly rolling down her face and she went back to looking at the floor. The silence stretched on for a couple of seconds before she spoke. "It's my fault they died. It was getting dark and I was cold so I asked them to build a fire. They said it was too much of risk and someone might find us, but I insisted, told them there was no one around. They consisted and we built a nice warm fire ate some hot food and everything was fine and pleasant. Then they found us must have been a dozen of them and my two companions fought and I just ran. They died because of me, they died so that I could live." It seemed to help her when she said this but not much.

"What were there names of those two security guards." I Asked

"Patrick and Darrelle" she said "Both of them had families."

"You did not kill them. It was raiders that carved them up not you. If you died trying to bury them it would have been a waste of their sacrifice." I did not really believe it was a sacrifice just fight or flight. They simply decided to fight instead of run and died. I highly doubted they had made a conscious choice to fight to give her time to flee to relative safety.

"Yeah I know but I need to continue with my mission if I stop now it would still be a waste just not sure what to do next."

"Well you can stay till you figure it out, I am still a fucked up mess so I'm going to sleep for a week." I did not care anymore about getting answers about the vault it was too much trouble. Better to be alive and ignorant than dead. I got shakily to my feet and started to move to my bed room.

Madison voice stopped me "Would you really have shot me?" She asked.

"What? When did I sat I would shot you?" I asked giving her a quizzical look.

"When the raiders spotted us you said that if they caught to us you would shot me yourself." She said

"Oh yes" The answered seemed to shock her, but just a little. "But only so that you would not get raped and tortured and I would have hated to shot you." she a forced smile.

I went and collapsed onto my bed. I was not asleep nearly as long as would have liked before be rudely interrupted by someone holding a sharp peace of steel against my throat.


End file.
